A news article describing how the illicit drug trade has spread to East Africa, in particular Kenya, where traffickers have taken advantage of the country's weak governance and corrupt officials in order to carry out their trade.

A Guardian article by the Overseas Development Institute's Jonathan Glennie, who argues that the time is right for NGOs from the international development community to add their voices to calls for a new approach to drug policy.

Nick Crofts, Senior Research Fellow at the Nossal Institute for Global Health, argues that as we mark the 50th anniversary of the UN conventions which declared a global war on drugs, the world can no longer ignore the intricate links between narcotics, development and conflict.

A report which examines how the misuse of drugs has been framed as a security issue – a threat to humanity which is intended to justify the extraordinary measures of worldwide prohibition and a militarised war.

A thorough report examining the complex interrelationships between illicit drugs (production, trade and use), illicit drugs policies, human rights and social and economic development. The report draws attention to the fact that the association between drug policy and development policy has not been adequately acknowledged, thereby hindering the achievement of a human rights-based approach to both policy areas.

A report examining the impact of illicit narcotics trafficking in West Africa. A surge in such trafficking began in 2004 and has led to an increase in violence and corruption in the region. However, the report argues that simply implementing counter-narcotics initiatives in the area will have a limited impact without a long-term commitment to strengthening state capacity, improving political transparency and accountability, and tackling poverty alleviation and underdevelopment.

Stephen Ellis, Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Free University of Amsterdam, describes how West African countries have become an important hub in the illicit drug trade, leading to increased corruption and crime.

Taken from the first 17 countries to participate in the World Health Organization’s (WHO), World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative finds that drug use is not distributed evenly across the globe and is not purely related to drug policy. Stricter user-level drug policies did not correlate with lower levels of use.

A UNODC report revealing that a declining US cocaine market and a rising European one have, with devastating consequences, prompted South American cocaine traffickers to use low-governance areas in West Africa as transit zones.